Day 4 - I Hate Myself - Television is a Seductive Mistress

Anita - She never wrote a book.

I'll never forget what my mother said when I handed her a copy of my first published book.  She was in a nursing home, in her bed.  I said, "Ma, look I finally got published."  She took my book in her feeble hands.  She turned it over.  She flipped through the pages ... said nothing.  Then she handed it back to me and said, "I should write a book."

You had to know Anita.  She was trying to keep me from getting a big head.  Her response amused me.  By then I was 47 years old and had long stopped looking for her approval, because I was NEVER going to get it .... EVER.

This is why I credit my mother with being one of the most influential people in my success.   If she'd been all gushy, constantly telling me how good I was, I'd never become such an overachiever.   She probably knew that, but I digress.

 This Book Proposal BusinessA key piece to any book proposal is identifying the markets for your book and convincing a potential publisher that it's worth the cash (now minimally $100K with most publishing houses) to invest in your project.  They want you to prove there's a market.

My Market Research for Thin Places: Irish Gateways to the Otherworld

Primary Markets:  The figures I uncovered in my marketing research show that the primary markets  - Tourists to Ireland, earth-based religious groups, the Mind, Body Spirit genre, readers of Celtic Christianity titles - rank in the millions.

Secondary Markets:  The secondary markets - genealogy trackers, tour groups / guides, hospitality industry and organizations with an Irish, Celtic, or earth-based spiritual mission have millions in this country alone.

Subsidiary Rights:  Then there's the subsidiary rights - book clubs, foreign translations, audio (podscasts) and video (I secretly want to model Rick Steves and have a Thin Places PBS show where instead of saying "Keep on travelin'" at the end, I say "May all your places be thin.")

Spin off Possibilities:  The spin-off possibilities are huge - Thin Places in Wales, Thin Places in Britain, Thin Places in America ....Fat Ladies in Thin Places. 

Merchandising:  I can see note cards, calendars, screen savers, T-shirts, book marks, grocery bags ... the possibilities are endless.  Who wouldn't love some photo of a mystical Irish landscape plastered on chachkies  < -- yes, I looked it up in the Urban dictionary.  Yiddish word for trinkets.

The markets combined with my platform indicate this book would be a profitable venture.  I feel better now and am a tad more motivated to finish the proposal by my self-imposed deadline of  Sunday, February 26th.

But today ..... I'm taking off, heading south and traveling across the largest estuary in North America - and the most studied estuary in the world - the Chesapeake Bay.  And I'll be crossing it by way of one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World - The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

So day 6 is a day off (again).  Going to visit my girlfriend, Del in Norfolk. 


Related Posts:

Day 4 - I Hate Myself - Television is a Seductive Mistress

This Introduction Sucks - Book Proposal - Day 2

10 Days of Hell - I WILL Finish Thin Places Book Proposal